NEW YORK — Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart had their eyes glued to the box score, mostly stoic but also bashful. During their postgame press conference, on either side of head coach Chris DeMarco, Jones and Stewart didn’t have to say much to communicate how they were feeling.
“I’m not in a celebratory mood right now,” Jones said when asked about moving up a rung in career blocks. She had three in the Liberty’s 79-60 blowout loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday night, but she didn’t care about that.
Their teammate Rebecca Allen, however, was candid with reporters about how she was feeling following the loss.
“I feel disappointed with this one and a little bit embarrassed as well,” she said. “I just don’t think that we should ever lose like that on a home court.”
After the Liberty proved that they could beat the Indiana Fever less than a week prior with their comparable high-octane offense that scored 109 points to the Fever’s 102, New York laid a goose egg against the Valkyries just five days later.
The Jekyll and Hyde type performances from the Liberty reflect a larger issue with consistency they’ve faced all regular season, and revealed some vulnerabilities they must address before the postseason.
Defensive intensity
With around seven and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter and down 18 points on Thursday night, New York found some energy on the defensive end. The Liberty put some pressure on the Valkyries by blitzing Golden State’s screens in addition to some full-court pressure. Jonquel Jones was trying to will the Liberty back into it with some emphatic blocks at the expense of Veronica Burton and Gabby Williams in the span of less than a minute. Allen praised the defensive adjustments that the Liberty made in the final quarter.
“It gave us some energy and [allowed us] to sort of change the tempo again,” Allen said. “That’s something that we’re really needing to do.”
Stewart, Leonie Fiebich and Rebekah Gardner used their length and aggression, but that wasn’t enough and it felt too late. The loss revealed a frustration that has plagued the Liberty routinely — inconsistent defensive pressure and intensity. This vulnerability was magnified against the playoff-bound Valkyries in a way it perhaps wasn’t in a win against the Chicago Sky earlier this season. Following the Liberty’s July 22 come-from-behind win against the Sky, Stewart was asked about why the Liberty’s blitzing and more aggressive defensive coverages came so late, especially when New York was trailing.
Before the reporter could finish the question Stewart had it answered. “Yeah I want to do it earlier too,” she said. “I don’t want to just do it when we’re down.”
On Thursday, when Gardner was asked if getting into more aggressive coverage earlier than the fourth quarter would have helped, she answered: “I think we always need to put emphasis on defense. And I mean, I would. I think that’s a great idea.”
Similarly, while Jones was happy with the team’s previous win over the Fever on Tuesday, she expressed how she knew that giving up 100 plus points to a team wasn’t satisfactory regardless of how many points her team scored on the other end.
“I think we still can make teams feel a little bit more uncomfortable out there,” Jones told reporters at one of the Liberty’s practices this week prior to taking on the Valkyries on Thursday night.
“And I feel like we’re understanding our schemes right now in terms of like what we want to do and being on the same page, but I think our next step is just making people feel uncomfortable if we play against them.”
Scores are only part of the story.
Unlock full access.
The players appear to be in agreement that increased defensive pressure should be executed earlier in games, and not just in come-from-behind situations. On the coaching side, DeMarco’s defensive analysis is more process oriented.
“We’ve got to continue to make strides and make sure we understand going forward, especially as a playoffs approach, how we’re going to play defensively and have a comfort zone with how we’re doing it, based on who’s in the game with each other,” DeMarco said. “Are we switching? Are we going to pursue on pick-and-roll? Are we going to be a drop and pick-and-roll? We can play up. We have a lot of things in our toolbox, and you know, as [Fiebich] is coming back, it unlocks another element.”
For this team to make a deep playoff run, they will need to address specific, measurable gaps in their defensive game plan and execute accordingly. The question is will they have enough time to.
Offensive confidence ebbs and flows
Against the Fever, the Liberty learned they can keep up with the league’s best offenses with some veteran savvy defense played during individual clutch possessions. Fiebich’s stop on Caitlin Clark‘s drive with 38 seconds left in regulation was clean amid Clark’s displeasure with the call. Against the Valkyries, however, the Liberty shot an abysmal 30.2% from the field, their worst shooting percentage of the season.
DeMarco acknowledged that the Liberty had to find ways to get points when shots aren’t falling from the field. On the positive side, he noted that the team had an advantage at the line, shooting 19 free throws to Golden State’s eight. On the other end of the court, however, he thought that the team could have created more turnovers, an ongoing challenge this season — the Liberty are last in the league this season in opponent turnover percentage.
“We’re generating open looks, and those aren’t going down,” he said. “We got to find ways to get stops defensively.”
Ionescu, who has been in a shooting slump her last five games, shooting just over 15% from three, went into specifics explaining what she believes the Liberty needed to do against the Valkyries to put more points on the board.
“I think we probably needed to do a better job of getting the ball inside,” she told reporters postgame. “Obviously, we have clear mismatches in the paint, but it wasn’t a game that we really did that. We really spaced the floor out and kind of shot a lot. So I think, if anything, maybe there’s more opportunity for us to use our size advantage [more] than what we really did … I think we played into their hands a little bit.”
Against the Valkyries, over 46% of the Liberty’s shots were 3-pointers. There simply wasn’t enough shot variance nor offense in transition to help with a poor day shooting the basketball.
“I think it was more maybe a learning experience for us to understand we can’t let teams’ defenses dictate what we want to do offensively,” Ionescu said. “And we just have to play our style of basketball no matter what, because we’re talented and skilled enough to do so. So, if anything, I think it’s more of a learning experience, really, than a disappointment for me personally.”
With just three games remaining in the regular season against playoff-bound teams — a trip to Minneapolis to face the top-ranked Lynx and a two-game homestand against Atlanta to close out the season — the Liberty have limited opportunities to iron out lingering inconsistencies. To prevent enduring a second straight first round playoff exit next month, they have to translate learning experiences into improvements against the league’s top competition.
Rep The IX Sports at your next game!
Shop the logo collection or special “Women’s Sports are Front Page News” collection now on Shopify.
